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Boo&lovers Reading Clul 
Hand -Book 



MERICA 
ACATIONS IN 
UROPE 



Mr. Frank R. Stockton 

Miss Jeannette L. Gilder 

Mrs. Mary Bradford Crowninshiele 

Mr. George Ade 

And Others 




/ / 




ISSUED FROM THE PRESS OF 
THE BOOKLOVERS LIBRARY 
1323 WALNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA 




FRANK R. STOCKTON 



THE BOOKLOVERS READING 
CLUB HAND-BOOK TO AC- 
COMPANY THE READING COURSE 
ENTITLED, AMERICAN VACATIONS 
IN EUROPE 



% 




SEYMOUR EATON 

Librarian 

FREDERIC W. SPEIRS, Ph.D. 

Educational Director 



(7) 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Coh£0 Received 

NOV, 1 1901 

COPYRIGHT ENTRY 

CLASS £IXXg. No. 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 19CZ 
The Booklovers Library 



AMERICAN VACA- 
TIONS IN EUROPE 



Course IF: Booklovers Reading Club 



BOOKS SELECTED 

FOR THIS READING COURSE 
by 

M R FRANK R. STOCKTON 




(9) 



D9/o 

.4 s- 




The BOOKS 



HE following four books are supplied by 
The Booklovers Library to Club Members 
who have enrolled for Course IV ' . 



I. FROM PONKAPOG TO PESTH 

(Thomas Bailey Aldrich) 

II. SAUNTERINGS 

(Charles Dudley Warner) 

///. OUR HUNDRED DAYS IN EUROPE 

(Oliver Wendell Holmes) 

IV. GONDOLA DAYS 

(F. Hopkinson Smith) 



The course of reading as outlined in this hand-book 
is based on these books. Suggestions for supplementary 
reading will be found at the end. 



(") 



AMERICAN VACATIONS IN EUROPE 

TALKS to TRAVELERS 

by 

JEANNETTE L. GILDER 

and 
MARY BRADFORD CROWNINSHIELD 

and 

GEORGE ADE 



These papers by Miss Gilder, Mrs. Crowninshield 

and Mr. Ade have been prepared specially 

for readers of this course. 



EDITORIAL NOTES 

by 
Professor FRED LEWIS PATTEE 



(»3) 




A WORD from THE DIRECTOR 



UROPE is no longer terra incognita 
to the cultivated American, and books 
of travel of the old-fashioned, purely 
informing type have lost their excuse 
for being. Nevertheless, the trained 
man of letters who chooses to take his 
readers on a European ramble is sure 
of finding a large party ready to be thus 
personally conducted on a literary journey through 
scenes which are already more or less familiar. 

We asked Mr. Frank R. Stockton to select a 
few books of this sort for the benefit of travelers, 




05) 



A Word from the Director 

past, present and prospective. Mr. Stockton s 
eminent qualifications for making such a choice 
are best represented by his own delightful sketches 
of foreign travel. The selection demanded nice 
discrimination. Mr. Stockton expressed the prin- 
cipal difficulty when he wrote us: " There are so 
many books of travel in which the author s per- 
sonality obtrudes itself in front of the proper subject 
matter of the work, that it is difficult to make a 
selection from this class which will satisfy persons 
who care ?nore for things in Europe than for the 
men or women who have seen the things." 

The books which were finally approved are pro- 
ductions of two eminent authors of the past gener- 
ation and two distinguished literary men of our 
own day. They furnish collectively a comprehen- 
sive view of the European countries most frequented 
by Americans, as seen through the eyes of men who 
report their observations and deductions in finished 
literary style. 

In response to our invitation to contribute a 
suggestive paper to our handbook, Miss Gilder 
has given us a delightful sketch of her experiences 
in Europe, upon which she has based valuable hints 
to prospective, travelers. Mrs. Crowninshield 's 
advice to young girls who travel abroad is the 
counsel of a woman who is almost as familiar 

(16) 



A Word from the Director 

with the standards of European society as with 
those of her native land. Mr. Ade, whose great 
success as a humorist has caused many readers to 
overlook his more serious work, has contributed 
some suggestions for the traveler which arc the 
more effective because illuminated by fashes of 
wit. 

In planning this course we felt that it should 
serve as pie as a fit reminiscence to those who have 
traveled widely ; as stimulus and preparation for 
those who are about to go abroad, and as a means 
of general culture and delightful recreation for 
those who must see Europe through the eyes of 
others. 



(«7) 



The Idea of the Course 




T is the dream of most Americans, and 
happily one more easy of realization 
with every passing year, to take, at 
least once in their lives, a vacation in 
Europe. It was not so very long ago 
that a voyage across the ocean was the 
central event of a lifetime. People 
closed up their business affairs, made 
their wills and left their families with 
tearful farewells. When Irving and Willis and 
Longfellow first went abroad the voyage con- 
sumed five or six weeks. Today one may run 
across the ocean, spend a delightful vacation amid 
any scenes he may choose, return almost before 
he has been missed by his friends and find his 
pocketbook no more depleted than if he had 
passed the time in an American summer resort. 
When the old world was difficult of access 
then it was that the book of travels in Europe 
flourished. Irving began the series with his 
Sketch Book and Bracebridge Hall. Then came 
N. P. Willis who made the first sentimental grand 
tour of Great Britain and the Continent, record- 
ing it m .Pencilling s by the Way. Longfellow's 
Outre Mer was in the direct line of succession. 
He described it as "a kind of sketchbook of 
scenes in France, Spain and Italy." "When a 



(19) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

boy of ten years," he wrote, "I read Willis' 
Pencillings by the Way as they appeared from 
week to week in the country newspapers, and 
the contemplation of these charming pictures of 
scenery and society filled me with a thousand 
dreams and inspirations." Thus it has been ever 
since. To all refined Americans the old world 
has ever been, even as it was to Longfellow, "a 
kind of Holy Land lying afar off behind the blue 
horizon of the ocean." 

About the middle of the century every return- 
ing traveler published his book until, in the words 
of Aldrich, the beaten path of continental tour- 
ing is "paved three deep with books of travel." 
Bryant's Letters from Abroad, Hilliard's Six 
Months in Italy, Taylor's Views Afoot, Mrs. 
Stowe's Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, 
Helen Hunt Jackson's Bits of Travel are among 
the best of these earlier books of travel. 

Of late there has been a very marked falling 
off in the production of such books. Europe is 
now so near and so many have seen it that the 
temptation is a strong one to relegate all narra- 
tives of travel among- its scenes to the shelf that 
holds Mrs. Child's once popular Letters from 
New York. Books of the type of Outre Mer 
and Bracebridge Hall, however, are always wel 
come. 

The really valuable literature of European 

travel separates itself into three classes : First, 



(20) 



American Vacations in Europe 

guidebooks pure and simple, like Baedeker for 
example ; second, careful studies of special cities 
and regions, like Hare's Walks in London or 
Stanley's Westminster Abbey ; and third, books 
of real literary merit, the brilliant and fascinating 
records of ideal travelers, who are not content 
with describing the mere chronology and cata- 
logue of the journey, but make their books 
almost as charming as the actual experience. 
Such writers are indeed rare. 

Our reading course deals only with the last 
two varieties. Guidebooks are for the pocket, 
to be consulted before the actual object ; the 
second class of books is for careful perusal and 
even study. He who goes abroad should pre- 
pare himself fully before he starts. For instance, 
he who is to visit Paris should carefully master 
Hamerton's well known book or some other 
authority, if he would get more than a mere 
smattering of ideas about it. One can see only 
what one is prepared to see. Books of the third 
class, however, can be enjoyed without effort by 
anyone at any time. Those who never expect to 
cross the ocean can do an extensive amount of 
fireside travel and find it extremely satisfying. If 
they dream of sometime visiting the scenes de- 
scribed, so much the better — the books are a 
charming introduction to Europe. Even if they 
are actually on board the steamer they can have no 
better reading. They cannot know too much of 

(21) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

the scenes they are to visit and it will add to the 
effect of Naples or Venice if they have previously 
seen them through the eyes of Aldrich or Howells. 
The course, therefore, begins with these alto- 
gether charming books of saunterings in Europe, 
but it also indicates supplementary fields where 
one may wander at will. 



(22) 



HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS TO 
THE READER 



/n the case of classics of travel so altogether 
charming as those in our list, there is no better 
suggestion than that the reader shall surrender 
himself completely to the author's guidance and 
■mood. When one is journeying in pleasant com- 
pany amid ideal landscapes in foreign lauds one 
does not care to analyze emotions and take notes at 
every step. He had much rather abandon himself 
completely to the charm of the journey. However, 
no true book can be skimmed over to advantage. If 
it is worth reading at all it is worth reading care- 
fully, even studiously. 

I. From Ponkapog to Pesth — Sketches 

of Travel. 
The book is rather a collection of sketches and 
studies than a book of travel. It is ranked in this 
list simply because its sketches happen to deal 
with European scenes. Such pieces as " A Visit 
to an Old Gentleman" contain all the elements 
necessary for a short story. There is not the 
slightest attempt at chronological sequence. Each 

(23) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

sketch is independent of the others. Note the 
sparkling style of the book ; it is the same that 
one finds in all of Aldrich's shorter pieces. Note 
also the genuine wit and epigram everywhere 
manifest. As he sits on the balcony, for instance, 
he is serenaded by an organ man "holding in one 
hand a long fishing line baited with monkey." 
Whatever else the pages may be they are not 
dull. They are the work of a rare story-teller 
whose art brings the scene graphically before you. 
There is no superfluous detail, no unnecessary 
touch. The book is packed with rare information, 
yet its primary object seems to be to entertain. 
The chapter on beggars, for instance, reads like a 
short story, yet what a fund of valuable informa- 
tion. No one is prepared to visit Europe until 
he has read it. 

Note that the first merit of the book is literary. 
It belongs on the same shelf with Hawthorne's 
earlier sketches and studies. It is the work of a 
brilliant wit and poet, one of the masters of the 
American school of short story writers. Every- 
thing is sharply cut like a cameo, without super- 
fluous details, clean, clear, accurate. 

II. SaunteHngS — Episodes of Travel. 

This is a type of the impressionistic book of 
travels. There is a slight thread of chronological 
sequence, but it is very far removed from the diary 
type of book or the mere collection of letters 

(24) 



American Vacations in Europe 

from abroad. The writer dwells upon only those 
scenes and episodes that have particularly inter- 
ested or impressed him. It is a kind of scrap- 
book made up of the most notable passages from 
the author's journal ; no particular attempt is made 
to fill the gaps. 

Note that Saunterings is the work of one who 
does his own observing. It owes nothing to the 
guidebooks. The style is not so brilliant and 
witty as that of Aldrich. The book smacks more 
of the notebook. It was evidently written on the 
spot, with the eye upon the object. Aldrich's 
sketches bear marks of careful polishing in the 
study at home. Note how a quiet atmosphere of 
humor pervades it. One does not laugh heartily 
as he does when he reads Mark Twain, but he 
finds himself often smiling serenely over the page. 
The style is natural and readable. Where there 
is action it moves rapidly. Even the dry informa- 
tion, which the author in his preface disclaims 
altogether, but which is none the less there and 
in abundance, is made light and interesting. 

The human interest is predominant. Ravenna, 
odd as it is, is interesting to Warner chiefly be- 
cause of its association with the lives of Dante, 
Byron and others. He stands before a cathedral, 
but he is attracted more by the picturesque beggar 
in the foreground. Note how all unconsciously 
Warner has put a wealth of autobiographical 
material into the book. It is the work of a serene, 

(25) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

kindhearted observer who has recorded his im- 
pressions, chiefly of men and women whom he 
met on his journey. 

III. Our Hundred Days in Europe. 

— A Narrative of Travel. 

Holmes' book is an excellent example of a 
consecutive narrative of travel. It begins by 
telling fully the object of the trip, then it goes 
straight on and describes it day by day. The 
great danger in this variety of composition is, of 
course, the almost irresistible temptation to dif- 
fuseness. One cannot tell everything. This 
danger Holmes cleverly avoids ; the book if any- 
thing is too short. He was nearly eighty when 
he wrote it and the pen of age is not apt to over- 
run limits. Moreover, unlike most travelers, 
Holmes had a governing principle to guide him 
in his sightseeing. He wished chiefly to visit 
those places which had impressed him during his 
first sojourn in Europe a half century earlier. 
The book is therefore curiously and charmingly 
double in its perspective. 

To recall old impressions was the first desire 
of the author ; to see men and women was the 
second. He cared very little for the miscella- 
neous sight-seeing that chiefly charms young trav- 
elers. The book is a picture-gallery of notables, 
full of glimpses of English customs in the best 
circles. One main object of the volume was to 

(26) 



American Vacations in Europe 

return thanks to kind friends abroad and to 
answer questions of kind friends at home. The 
primary object, therefore, was a narrow one. 
Everywhere we see Holmes ; he is as much in 
evidence as the England he is visiting. On 
every page we find his sparkle and wit, his wis- 
dom and epigram, his fund of pertinent reminis- 
cence, apt quotation, brilliant analogy, everything 
that goes to make up that charming combination 
that we associate with the name of the genial 
autocrat. 

It might seem, then, that as a mere record of 
travel, the book, in the words of Stockton, would 
not "satisfy persons who care more for things in 
Europe than for the men and women who have 
seen the things." But it certainly does not harm 
a book to be full of a delightful personality, and 
if it takes us into circles where only the few are 
admitted, so much the better for the average 
reader. Our Hundred Days is a really valuable 
book of travels. Its descriptions and characteri- 
zations are brief and clear ; its fund of observation 
is large ; its point of view is remarkable, and its 
enthusiasm and zest are certainly of the kind that 
is contagious. 

IV. Gondola Days An Idealization of 

Travel. 
Gondola Days is the book of an artist and 
dreamer, one who seeks the most romantic spot 

(27) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

in Europe and surrenders himself without reserve 
to the sensuous delight of the place, " the Venice 
of light and life, of sea and sky and melody." It 
is the very antipode of the guidebook type of 
literature. It has not a single trace, as Warner 
sometimes has, of the iconoclastic Yankee spirit 
illustrated in Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad. It 
attempts no history, save vague legends ; it gives 
no systematic attention to description ; it is bound 
by no more rules than is the tramp Luigi whom 
it characterizes. It is a summer book, a poet's 
book. Every romantic element is made the most 
of; every illusion is magnified; everything com- 
mon or squalid or ridiculous is looked at until 
it is transfigured. 

Note first that it is an artist's book. Form, 
color and picturesque detail predominate. Note, 
too, the limpid English, the wealth of epithets, 
and the marvelous atmosphere of dreamy, sen- 
suous content that Moods the book. As to 
whether he has idealized his Venice one who has 
never been there must read Howells and others 
to judge. The book marks one extreme ten- 
dency of works of travel ; Innocents Abroad 
marks the other. The abandon of the book, its 
enthusiasm, its romance, are certainly contagious. 
The reader lays it down with a wish himself to 
enter upon an indefinite career of gondola days. 



(28) 



TOPICAL OUTLINE 

OF THE COURSE 



(=9) 



TOPICAL OUTLINE 

F THE C U R S E 



1. The Voyage. 

Holmes, 9-18. 
Warner, vii-xii. 

2. England. 

Holmes, 18-160, 178-208. 

Liverpool, 18, 179; Chester, 18; Epsom, 31; 
Windsor, 47; Isle of Wight, 68; Cambridge, 71 ; 
Oxford, 79, 86; Stratford-on-Avon, 90; Bath, 
105; Stonehenge, no, 113; Salisbury, 108, 116; 
Brighton, 132. 

3. London. 

Holmes, 23-31 ; 40-47; 50-68; 135-160; 178-180. 
Westminster Abbey, 29, 59 ; Houses of Parlia- 
ment, 52, 63; Chelsea, 136; British Museum, 
151 ; The Temple, 153. 

Warner, 3-8. Paris and London. 

Aldrich, 165-194. Smith, a study of the typical 
London valet. 

4. Scotland. 

Holmes, 82-86. Edinburgh. 

5. Paris. 

Holmes, 161-178. 
Warner, 3-17. 

Paris and London, 3-8; Paris in May, 9-13; 

An Imperial Review, 14-17. 

(30 



The Booklovers Reading Club 



6. The Low Countries and The Rhine. 

Warner, 21-45. 
Amiens, 21 ; Bruges, 23 ; Ghent, 27 ; Antwerp, 
28 ; Amsterdam, 30 ; Cologne, 37 ; the Rhine, 40 ; 
Heidelberg, 43. 

7. The Alps. 

Warner, 49-82. 

Berne, 50; Freiburg, 54; Leman, 56; Chamouny, 
61 ; Baths of Leuk, 76. 

8. Bavaria. 

Warner, 85-156. 

Augsburg, 88 ; Nuremberg, 92 ; Munich, 96. 
Aldrich, Munich, 35, 36. 

9. Ravenna. 

Warner, 1 71-185. 

10. Rome. 

Warner, 189-196. Palm Sunday in St. Peter's. 
Aldrich, 73-1 15. A Visit to the Pope. 

11. Naples. 

Warner, 199-208. An ascent of Vesuvius. 
Aldrich, 119-161. On a Balcony. 

12. Sorrento. 

Warner, 211-289. 
Villa Nardi, 216; Capri, 268. 

(32) 



American Vacations in Europe 

13. Venice. 

Smith, 1-205. 
The Riva, 28 ; San Marco, 42 ; The Fisherman, 
85 ; A Gondola Race, 101; Cafes, 116; Markets, 
136; Legacies of the Past, 155; Street Life, 
176 ; Night in Venice, 197. 

14. General Topics. 

Holmes, 182-208. General observations on Eng- 
land. 

Aldnchy 15-69. 

Days with the Dead, 15-36; Beggars, 39-51; 
Ways and Manners, 55-69. 




3E 



(33) 



How to Enjoy a Holiday 

Abroad: J Ten- Minute Talk 

by JEANNETTE L. GILDER 



(35) 



How to Enjoy a Holiday 

Abroad: A Ten- Minute Talk 

by JEANNETTE L. GILDER 



Miss Jeannette Leonard Gilder is a member 
of a notable literary family, being a sister of the 
late William H. Gilder, Arctic explorer and writer, 
and of Richard Watson Gilder, editor of The Cen- 
tiny. Joseph B. Gilder, her younger brother, 
has been co-editor of The Critic with Miss Gil- 
der since its inception in 1881. After general 
journalistic experience on the Newark Morning 
Register and the New York Tribune, she became 
literary editor, and afterwards musical and drama- 
tic editor, of the New York Herald for six years. 
She was associated for some time with her 
brother in the editorial department of The Cen- 
tury, then called Scribner* s Monthly. In addition 
to her editorial work on The Critic, Miss Gilder 
has edited Representative Poems of Living Poets, 
American and English ; with Helen Gray Cone, 
Pen Portraits of Literary Men; and with Joseph 
B. Gilder, Authors at Home. Her novel, Taken 
by Siege, appeared in 1S97, followed three years 
later by a humorous sketch of her own childhood, 
The Autobiography of a Tomboy. Her dramati- 
zation of Quo Vadis had a successful run at the 
Herald Square Theatre New York. She has 
since made several other dramatizations. 

IT was in 1886 that I took my first vacation — the 
first in nineteen years. I had been working 
very hard, newspaper work principally, and I felt 
the need of rest and chano-e. It had been the 
dream of my life to go abroad. It had also been 

(37) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

the dream of my friend, Clara Louise Kellogg, to 
go with me when I went. Europe was an old 
story to her. It was all new to me and she 
wanted to see how I took it. I am afraid I took it 
too quietly at times and that she thought by my very 
quietness that I was unappreciative. The truth 
is I was "too full for utterance." I remember 
my first visit to Westminster Abbey. I stood 
silent, awed, thrilled by memories. "Why don't 
you say something ; one might think that you didn't 
appreciate it," said my friend. "One would be 
wrong, then," I replied, "for I think 'tis 'sweet 
pretty.' ' She never asked me again what I 
thought of such scenes and places but let me en- 
joy them in my own way. I might "gush " over 
a hallowed spot after I had passed from under its 
direct influence, but when I stood in the shadow 
of its memories I thrilled silently. 

It is a mistake to try to see everything in 
Europe during one short trip. One should spend 
weeks in Paris, London, Rome and Florence. 
Although I have been in Europe several times 
since my first visit I have not been to Italy. I 
am saving that for a time when I have months to 
devote to it. I like to become intimately 
acquainted with great cities — to know London 
and Paris as well as I know New York. The 
only way to do this is to spend weeks in wander- 
ing through their streets — in living as though one 
belonged there. Of course, one must see the 

(38) 



American Vacations in Europe 

famous historical monuments in great cities, but 
not as a sightseer. I avoid guides as I would 
avoid the plague. When I go to Westminster 
Abbey or the Tower of London I drop in as a 
Londoner might. I stroll through the parks, sit 
in the courtyard of the Temple, lunch at old 
restaurants, wander through picture galleries, 
gaze in at shop windows, ride on "bus" tops and 
live the life of the native. The consequence is 
that I know London and Paris as well as I know 
New York ; better perhaps, for I have other 
things to do when I am in New York and cannot 
give much of my time to wandering about. 

If a person can only make one visit to Europe 
in the course of his life-time I should advise him 
to see as much as he can in a short time, but not 
too much. I recall perfectly the appearance and 
character of towns that I spent only a day in ; 
Antwerp, for instance. I arrived there in the 
morning of one day and went away on the after- 
noon of the next, and yet I have a vivid recollec- 
tion of the Plantin Museum, the Cathedral, with 
its Rubens paintings, the City Hall, the tree- 
lined streets, and the little world's fair with its 
miniature "Midway" that was being held outside 
the walls of city. 

I took a friend to Paris once for three days. 
She had never been there before and she did not 
know when she might go again and she had only 
three days. 

(59) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

"What can I see in three days?" said she. 
"It is hardly worth while going." 

"You will see more in three days than you will 
forget in thirty years, if you leave it to me," 
said I. 

We went, and I proved my case. We had 
three nights as well as three days. The first 
night we went to the Theatre Francais ; the 
second, to another theatre, and the third we gave 
to a dinner party. Instead of trying to see all 
the pictures in the Louvre, I took her to see my 
favorites among the Titians, Velasquez and Mu- 
rillos. We did not waste time in looking at 
miles and miles of "stone gals," but worshiped 
at the shrines of the Venus of Milo and Winged 
Victory. We gazed with awe into Napoleon's 
tomb and let the little old man at the door of 
Notre Dame swish us with holy water. We 
lounged along the quays and bought old books 
for twice their value ; we walked in the shadow 
of the walls of the Sorbonne. We drove in the 
Bois and we lunched and dined at restaurants 
that the tourist knows not of. At the end of 
the third day we went back to London. 

" Was it not worth while to have spent three 
days in Paris?" I asked. 

"I feel equal to writing a book on the manners 
and customs of the Parisians," was the reply ; 
"but you must admit that there is much in hav- 
ing a guide who can show you the things you 

(40) 



American Vacations in Europe 

want most to see without loss of time." I made 
the admission. 

If one's time is limited and one wants to make 
the most of it I would suggest seeing some of 
the famous small places of England and working 
up to London as the grand climax. If you land 
at Liverpool, shake its dust from your heels at 
the earliest possible moment and board the train 
for Chester. If you get there in time to have a 
fresh water bath before dinner, so much the 
better. Stroll a bit through the streets near 
your hotel if you have time, then dine as you 
never dined before and be happy. Everything 
will be new to you ; the huge joints of beef and 
mutton wheeled to your place that you may point 
out your favorite cut, the potatoes boiled to melt- 
ing, the broad beans — a new dish to you — the 
long salad leaves that you dip in salt and eat 
with the cheddar, the deep-dish pie, or gooseberry 
fool, if it be in season. It will all taste so good 
and so un-American, particularly the bread, which 
is rather heavy and ugly looking as compared 
with our own, which after all is French and not 
our own. But you will get to liking it before 
you leave England. You will like it best of all 
when cut thin and spread with fresh butter, un- 
salted, I mean, and eaten with your tea. Don't 
waste your time in bed, but be up with the lark 
and walk around Chester on the walls, stopping 
to smell the hawthorn blossoms and to gaze over 

(40 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

the English meadows, so much greener than ours 
that you would know that you were not in Amer- 
ica if only by that greenness. Your delight in Ches- 
ter will be exquisite, for it will be your first sight of 
an old English town. With its picturesque archi- 
tecture, the houses with their timbered gables, 
its arcades, its antique furniture — some of it, I 
regret to say, made while you wait, — it is all as 
you dreamed it would be. 

From Chester press on to Leamington and 
make that your headquarters for drives or bicycle 
rides to Stratford-on-Avon, Kenilworth, Warwick 
and Broadway in Gloucestershire, if you have the 
time. 

After you have saturated yourself with the his- 
tory and the beauty of these places, take the train 
for Oxford. It will probably not be term time, 
but if you do not see men in cap and gown you 
will see them in flannels. Oxford will give you 
one of your greatest sensations. It is the oldest 
looking city in England and brimful of memories. 
The blackened facades of the colleges look as 
though each student, as he passed from under the 
portals, had turned back and dashed a bottle of 
ink upon it's walls. One of the most impressive 
occasions of my life was wandering through the 
quadrangles of Magdalen College one summer 
evening three or four years ago. It was not my 
first visit to this famous seat of learning, but 
there was something in the long twilight of this 

(42) 



<t 



American Vacations in Europe 

particular evening, the ivy-covered towers, the 
silence, the memories, that made a never-to-be- 
forgotten picture. 

From Oxford it is not more than an hour by 
rail to London and you arrive in this great city of 
the world with a mind prepared. Once there stay 
till you know it well. Ride in its penny busses, 
in its penny boats, but don't ride in its tramcars 
unless you wish to lose all the patience you may 
possess. Perhaps you will never have occasion to. 
There are not many of them fortunately. Do not 
confine your walks to Bond Street and Piccadilly 
and your driving to Hyde Park, but explore side 
streets and blind alleys, first inquiring as to their 
safety. If you are out on some occasion when 
there is a crowd, have a care how you elbow your 
way into it. A London crowd is a thing to avoid ; 
but if you are unfortunate enough to get wedged 
into one, faint, then you are sure to be carried out 
and taken to a place of safety. Do not miss a 
Lord Mayor's show, and if you can see the King 
on some state occasion you will be repaid for 
your trouble. The red and gold coaches, the out- 
riders, the postilions take you back to fairyland 
and you involuntarily look about you for Cinde- 
rella and Prince Charming. Of course, you will 
acquire the tea habit while you are in England, 
but you will cast it aside when you return to 
America if you are wise. There is something in 
the climate of England that calls for tea at five 

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The Booklovers Reading Club 

o'clock, and the call is loud, for everyone hears it 
and no one, from the girl in the shop to the min- 
ister of state, turns a deaf ear to the welcome 
sound. If you can possibly do so, have tea at 
least once on the terrace of the House of Parlia- 
ment — tea and strawberries, if they be in season. 
You will never forget the sensation of sipping tea 
to the accompaniment of Big Ben's deep-toned 
clanging, with members of Parliament and hand- 
some women in their smartest gowns around you, 
the Thames at your feet and St. Thomas's Hos- 
pital in the distance. There is never a day, never 
an hour spent in London that has not its own 
peculiar interest. The longer you stay there, the 
more its greatness will be borne in upon you. 
Paris is fascinating, you love its gaiety, its air of 
perpetual merrymaking ; but for solid, never- 
ending delight London is the city of the world. 



(44) 



The AMERICAN GIRL 

ABROAD: A TALK 

by MARY BRADFORD CROWNINSHIELD 



(45) 



The AMERICAN GIRL 

ABROAD: A TALK 

by MARY BRADFORD CROWNINSHIELD 



Mrs. Crovvninshield, a direct descendant of 
Governor William Bradford, is the author of 
several poems, sketches, books of travel, novels 
and stories for children. Her first juvenile book, 
All Among the Lighthouses, was based upon 
actual experience gained while her husband, Cap- 
tain Crowninshield, was Inspector of Lighthouses. 
In following the fortunes of her husband — formerly 
commander of the Maine, and now head of the 
Bureau of Navigation in Washington — Mrs. 
Crowninshield has found much of the material so 
skilfully interwoven with her stories and sketches. 
Among her best-known books are Latitude 19° : 
A Romance of the West Lndies ; Where the 
Trade Itfnd Blows ; The Archbishop and the 
Lady and Valencia's Garden. 



With reading of European travel there arises 
the desire to become one of the vast 
number of Americans who take their vacation 
each year in this way. It has been made so easy 
now for those who wish to cross to England, 
France, Italy or Germany that many young per- 
sons so take their summer outino-. I know of 
four young girls who are planning a two weeks' 
stay in England and France. This two weeks 
comes out of their one month's vacation, for they 
are in office in Washington, and when they have 

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The Booklovers Reading Club 

taken their month they have exhausted all their 
leave for the entire year. Someone said to them 
in my hearing : 

" But you do not speak the language. How 
can you go to Paris ? " 

"I can say ' cocker?" returned the spokes- 
woman of the party cheerfully, "and ' combien! ' 

The other three looked up at her with faith shin- 
ing in their eyes, secure in her power to pilot her 
little band through the quicksands of European 
travel. 

They have laid out their tour in the most con- 
tracted and economical way. They take a week 
to go, a week to return, and stay ten days in 
England and five days in France. They have 
made routes for themselves and intend visiting 
thejardin d? acclimatation and Versailles in one 
and the same day. If you consult the map of 
Paris and its environs you will see how satisfac- 
tory this would be ! They are going for rest. 
The week in which they cross will be a week of 
rest if they use it in the right way ; but I fancy 
that the two weeks of their stay will enforce 
another rest-cure, not only on board ship but 
after their return home, when comes the steady 
grind again. One can but feel sorry for them. 
Thirsting to see the wonders of the old world, 
with limited means and restricted time, they can 
get but a whiff of the greenery of England, a 
glance at the hedgerows of France, before they 

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American Vacations in Europe 

must take passage for home. To all such per- 
sons my advice would be — rest quietly at home 
until you can go untrammeled and free from care 
and worry. That which you see so hurriedly 
will only make you long- for more, and your trip 
will give you no rest and no pleasure, only dis- 
appointment. Then, too, my young friends have 
calculated what they will spend ; hut I am afraid 
that they are to meet with disappointment, for I 
have always found it a good rule to make a 
liberal allowance for everything that I can think 
of, add a third more, and not feel sure then of 
accomplishing the trip for the stipulated sum. 

The courage, self-reliance and dignity of our 
American girls abroad are undeniable ; but there 
comes a time when that self-reliance is taxed to 
its utmost limit, and our girl wishes that she had 
not felt quite so sure of herself. I remember 
when we were traveling many years ago noticing 
an American girl who seemed very much alone. 
We were crossing the Channel by a most uncom- 
fortable route, that from London to Rotterdam. 
I noticed that the girl spoke to no one, and that 
no one spoke to her. After arriving at Rotter- 
dam we took an afternoon train for Berlin. 
There was the girl again on the train, apparently 
alone, but not lonely, for she read, wrote in her 
little diary and smiled brightly when the guard 
spoke to her, but shook her head for reply. 
Evidently she understood nothing of the lan- 

4E (49) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

guage. She did not seem anxious as to her 
journey, and as she did not speak to me I did not 
force myself upon her but waited and watched 
for the time when she should need help. We 
arrived at a small station where we were to 
chancre cars. When we had done so, acrain the 
girl was in our compartment, and then for the 
first time a little of her American confidence 
seemed to have deserted her. She arose and 
came to the place where I was sitting ; she bent 
over me and held out her open hand and said, 

"Will you kindly tell me what that is called? " 
I looked into her palm and saw a small piece 
of German money. 

"That," said I, "is a five groschen piece.'' 

"It is a little uncomfortable for me," said the 
girl. "Things have not turned out as I expected." 

"Can we help you in any way?" I asked. 
"Where are you going? " 

"I am going to Hanover," said the girl. "I 
have had rather an uncomfortable experience. I 
am going to school in Hanover. My aunt in Lon- 
don was to take me over. I came out under the 
care of some friends and found my aunt very ill, 
the house all in confusion, and no place for me. 
My uncle evidently wished to get rid of me — he 
is only my uncle by marriage — and so, seeing the 
way he felt I said I could cross alone. My uncle 
said that he had heard a great deal of the indepen- 
dence of American girls and he had no doubt that 

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American Vacations in Europe 

I could. He then asked my aunt for the address 
of the school. She pointed out the address in her 
book and I copied it down. Now the unpleasant 
part of it is, I have lost the address and don't 
know a word of the language." 

"But," I said, "you will reach Hanover in the 
middle of the night. You cannot stay there alone 
under such circumstances. Come with us to 
Berlin. There we will see the American consul 
and he will telegraph to the consul in Hanover to 
meet you on your return. In that way you will 
be safe." 

"Oh ! I am safe enough," smiled the girl. "It 
will be all right." 

" But what do you expect to do ? " said I. " How 
find your school ? " 

"Why I shall just take a cab and drive around 
to all the schools and ask if I am expected." 

"And how are you going to do that if you do 
not know a word of the language ? " This seemed 
to strike her as a reasonable objection. 

" Can't you tell me what sentence I must say ? " 
she added. "Write it down for me, there's a 
dear, and I will get it by heart." 

I wrote the desired sentence on a leaf of my 
diary, but I begged her that, if she would not 
continue on to Berlin with me, she would go to 
an hotel, pass the night there, find the American 
consul the next morning, and telegraph to her 
aunt in London for the address of the school. 



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The Booklovers Reading Club 

This seemed a solution of the difficulty of which 
she had not thought, and she promised me and 
kissed me goodbye, looking back at me linger- 
ingly, for she felt, I knew, that she was parting 
from her only friend. I have often wondered 
what became of that young girl; whether her 
American independence carried her through her 
troubles. 

The American girl should remember when she 
travels that she has taken upon herself a great 
responsibility, not only to keep for herself the re- 
spect of those whom she meets, but for her country 
as well. Many a girl who goes abroad and never 
intentionally does anything that could be called 
wrong makes herself conspicuous or noticeable ; 
and that is always a pity for a young girl alone. 
In fact, no young girl should be alone in a strange 
land no matter how well able she may feel to take 
care of herself, for our free ways do not obtain 
in Europe ; and where they are not usual they are 
misunderstood. Unforeseen circumstances occur 
when it is important to have a friend to consult 
or the protection of an older woman. 

For the portraiture of the Daisy Miller type of 
girl I can never forgive her author, because for- 
eigners take such presentment by an American 
author as a type of the American girl ; whereas 
she is only a type of a type. I have seen such a 
girl myself, I must confess, but she is not usual 
even in tourist-ridden Europe. The sort of girl 

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American Vacations in Europe 

who calls out of windows or into windows ; who 
persists in going to the office of the hotel instead 
of calling a servant ; who knows the hotel clerk, 
discovers his name, and calls him Mr. Blank after 
the first day — such a girl does much to lower 
American young womanhood in foreign eyes. In 
Europe the quiet, reserved tourists are not noticed, 
while the boisterous hoyden gives cause for much 
horrified remark. 

Sometimes an anecdote, if not the most digni- 
fied way of carrying one's point, may be the most 
convincing way. An instance occurs to me. We 
were living one summer at a little town on the 
lake of Constance. Sitting one morning on the 
balcony of my room overhanging the piazza, I 
was attracted by the approach of some hand- 
somely dressed women. They had left the boat 
and were walking towards the hotel. Their ap- 
proach was announced by their voices which were 
so loud as to carry to the spot where I sat. The 
one in advance was leaning on the arm of a man 
much younger than herself to whom she seemed 
devoted. She was a woman of perhaps forty 
years of age ; her companion a youth of twenty- 
five or thereabouts. The young man seemed 
uneasy and kept glancing over his shoulder at 
the very pretty young girl who was following. 
She also was leaning on the arm of a man, a be- 
whiskered, beringed Italian, who looked closely 
into her pretty eyes and paid her marked 

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The Booklovers Reading Club 

attention. From his language I soon found him 
to be the courier. Now a traveler engages 
a courier as he does a servant, depends on him 
to engage his rooms, check his trunks, and pays 
him when he leaves his service. The older 
woman engaged a table and proceeded to order 
lunch, the courier sitting down with the women 
as familiarly as did the younger man. There 
were other people sitting about taking coffee or 
wine at small tables, so that I could not feel that I 
was eavesdropping in listening to this strange 
quartette. I cannot remember all the conversa- 
tion, nor would I repeat it if I could; but the tenor 
of it is shown by a remark made by the young girl. 
Her mother had risen to leave and was paying" 
for the refreshments, when I heard the girl say in 
distinct tones : 

"Mr. Ravello, you are a fraud. Do you know 
what that means ? " The Italian placed his large 
dark hand over his spacious breast and said, half 
bowing : 

"No, Mees, I know eet not." 

" Mommer," called the girl to the elder woman, 
"isn't Mr. Ravello a fraud? He lets you pay for 
the lunch when you gave him the money to pay 
for the trip," and then she laughed shrilly and 
discordantly. 

They descended the steps again, the mother 
taking the arm of the young man, the girl leaning 
upon the arm of the Italian courier. Some charm- 

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American Vacations in Europe 

ing English friends of ours were the witnesses of 
this episode. They came to us afterward, saying, 

"We had heard that American girls are free in 
their manners, but we never believed it until now. 
I suppose she is a type. I see now where Daisy 
Miller came from." 

To my assurance that I had never seen such a 
girl before they only laughed and shook their 
heads. 

"Ah, yes, that is all very well, and you do 
right to defend your own people ; but we see 
now what your novelists mean when they write of 
such girls." And then followed what I am sure no 
one of the better class of Americans would be 
guilty of saying, even if he thought it. 

" But I suppose you have lived abroad so long 

that ," implying that before we came to Europe, 

in our own wild untrained state, we too might have 
laughed discordantly, associated with the courier 
and used American slang in conversation with 
him — which all goes to show how little, after all 
these years of intercourse, our friends across the 
water know of the ways and manners of goqd 
society in our great republic. 

So many tales have been told of the ignorance 
of foreigners as to our status and condition at 
home that repetition here is hardly necessary 
or interesting. They are beginning to find out 
now that we have not always lived in trees or in 
bamboo huts in the woods. It is an old story but 

v55; 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

a fact that occurred when I lived there, that some 
natives of Vienna, asking some young men to 
"speak a little American for them," they replied 
in what children call pig-latin, saying at the same 
time that their father was a chief, and that some- 
time they would " come around in their national 
dress and do a war dance." This they did later, 
tomahawks, feathers, warwhoop and all, much to 
the delight of the simple Germans, who said 
wonderingly to each other, "It is strange that 
they are so white ; but I believe that they have 
lived so long in Europe they have become 
bleached." They then asked if we used bows and 
arrows in the Civil War — which they called "the 
war between North and South America." 

I well remember, when taking a trip on the 
Lake of Lucerne, the appearance on the deck of 
the small steamer of a party of English people. I 
will not insult my English friends by saying that 
they were a type of the English whom we are 
accustomed to meet. The man was of the middle 
class, probably off for his holiday, and his woman- 
kind were enjoying it with him as much as they 
were capable of enjoying anything which they did 
not in the least understand. They had no idea 
where they were going nor where they had come 
from except that it was primarily England, and 
they were all longing in their inmost souls to get 
back as fast as possible to that sacred soil. They 
intruded themselves upon us as they would not 

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American Vacations in Europe 

have dared to intrude upon their own country 
people, for there is no one whom the sturdy Briton 
so repudiates and eschews when traveling on the 
continent as his own countrymen. Their island 
is small and proximity may be dangerous. These 
persons sidled up to us and began to ask us 
questions, when a gentleman of our party, 
anxious to draw them away from us, began to 
answer them and tell them tales that belong more 
to fairyland than to any other. The good natured 
pater familias, dressed in an astounding suit of 
what they call over there "dittos," said : 

"I suppose you're h' Americans ? " to which 
our friend replied gladly that he was. And then 
the stranger remarked : 

"I suppose you think nothing of riding fifty 
miles to breakfast with a friend." 

"Oh, yes," said his listener, "I should think a 
great deal of it." 

"Well, now, that's queer," said the stranger. 
"I have an uncle in Rio and he thinks nothing of 
riding out to his brother's place before breakfast, 
and that's fifty miles away. Where do you hail 
from ? " 

"From New York," answered our friend. 

"Any shooting?" 

And then followed a description of the fine 
sport one has in standing in a window on Fifth 
Avenue or Broadway and picking off the bears 
and buffaloes as they run down the streets, which 

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The Booklovers Reading Club 

would have done credit to a Munchausen. My 
friend told his story with great solemnity and the 
cockney accepted it with equal seriousness. Of 
course, I thought it all wrong that the stupid 
man should be so misled, and expressed myself 
to that effect later ; but our friend seemed to con- 
sider himself quite justified in deceiving a person 
who had no more interest in a country where the 
people speak his own tongue than to know so 
little about its locality, its ways, the ways of its 
people, or their manners. 

I remember that when a lady asked me if I had 
ever traveled in a Pullman car (they had just 
placed poor copies of them upon some of the 
French roads) I answered that I had never ridden 
in anything else, which was a little bit of Amer 
ican brag, for I remember quite well the old- 
fashioned cars. She then remarked, "That is 
strange because they were invented in England." 
Also, according to her, the sewing machine, the 
telegraph and the mountain railway which runs 
up the Righi were all of European invention. 
When I told her that the Righi railway in which 
we were descending at the time was copied after 
our own Mount Washington railway, she shook 
her head pityingly and said that she had taken 
me for a well informed person but — a silence 
which implied that she had found her mistake. 
It requires a great deal of patience and polite- 
ness to get along with persons like this ; to keep 

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American Vacations in Europe 

their respect and your own. But this is only 
one side of European travel. 

One great benefit, it seems to me, of European 
travel lies in the fact that one takes more exercise 
than at home. We rise early in some little Swiss 
hotel, neat and clean, if plain, the food whole- 
some and well served. We go into the breakfast 
room and partake of the simple meal composed 
of honey, eggs, bread and coffee ; and then we 
start, alpenstock in hand, for some wooded walk 
or some glacier not too far away, for there are 
places where these wonders of nature are within 
easy distance of the hotel. The invigorating 
climb, the scramble down the moraine which 
forms the sides of the great frozen torrent, the 
stepping out carelessly — for the American girl is 
as independent as if upon her own icy lake or 
skating pond until seized by the careful guide and 
told of the danger should one make a misstep. 
Whereupon he holds her hands firmly within his 
grasp and proceeds with measured and careful 
pace across this mystery of chasms great and 
small, where one can hear the water tinkling- 
away in the darkness below. And then the home 
coming, perhaps late in the afternoon, when the 
sun is setting behind the snow peaks, throwing 
upon them the red light of the after-glow ; the 
peasant Mddchcns yodling far overhead on the 
mountain tops, answering each other from height 
to height or calling a welcome from the attic 

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The Booklovers Reading Club 

rooms of the hotel to the approaching strangers ; 
the bare, open hall where we leave our alpen- 
stocks, each handle burned in with our names 
and the ascents which we have made ; the well 
earned rest, and then the early evening meal ; the 
wandering out afterward to a sort of under- 
ground room where the tragers or guides sur- 
round a bright fire and tell blood-curdling stories 
or relate hair-breadth escapes, enough to chill 
the backbone of the uninitiated ; the charming 
Swiss songs sung with precision and melody, 
whose words, however, will not always bear 
translation, a case where ignorance is bliss. 

Ah ! how delightful ; and the question is, what 
shall one choose ? Swiss mountain and valley ; 
the sail over the lagoons of that city of the sea, 
Venice ; the Alhambra, and the Generaliffe of 
Granada, brought into notice again by one of our 
own authors ; the pyramids and the green Nile with 
its waterfalls and stretch of historic sand ; sunny 
France and its lovely historic country ; Austria 
with its music and beer ; Germany with its music 
and beer ; or England with its charming open 
country, always in full dress, its crowded cities, 
its Piccadilly of which there is but one in all the 
world ; or shall it be Ireland or Scotland with 
their wild beauty of moor and fell, crag and 
peak? 

My advice to you is, if you can travel but lit- 
tle, read lavishly and generously ; choose your ob- 

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American Vacations in Europe 



jective point ; go there in the most direct way ; 
and, when you have reached your goal, enjoy 
yourself to the top of your bent — exhaust your 
stamping ground and your subject together. 
Listen not to the voice of the charmer who is 
always reminding you, when you confess to not 
having seen certain points of interest, "There! 
you have missed the finest thing in Europe," and 
who would lead you astray, only to find someone 
else in the new place to which you go who will 
also tell you of some other chimera further along 
the road. Be content with what you have, see all 
that you can, and, when your vacation is over, 
come home to think over its pleasures and pre- 
pare by more reading and intelligent thought to 
visit, another happy year, some new and strange 
country which will be as much of a recreation to 
you as the place to which you went on this sum- 
mer's vacation. 




(60 



HOW TO TRAVEL 
IN EUROPE: Some 
Suggestions by george ade 



(63) 



HOW TO TRAVEL 
IN EUROPE: Some 

Suggestions by george ade 



George Ade, the author and newspaper man, 
is a native of Indiana, where he was born at the 
close of the Civil War. College bred and widely 
traveled he evinces his patriotism by an intelligent 
comparison of American and foreign institutions, 
humorously exposing the weak points of his 
countrymen and defending their strong ones. In 
addition to his newspaper work on the Chicago 
Record, lie has written several books, of which the 
best known is Fables in Slang. As might be in- 
ferred from the title of this book, his style is that 
of the humorist-moralist, appealing to his readers 
through the vernacular of the street. The great 
popularity of the Fables proves the author's claim 
to a distinct place in contemporaneous literature. 

A journey through Europe has no terrors ex- 
cept to the American who is about to 
undertake it for the first time. For him to strike 
boldly through the Latin countries with no lan- 
guage at his command except English and hardly 
any traveling experience to guide him through 
the strange lands seems a very large undertaking. 
The difficulties and hardships of travel are always 
exaggerated in prospect. In retrospect they seem 
trivial and are found to have given color and 
variety to the vacation wanderings. They provide 
the traveler with something to talk about during 

5E (65) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

the long winter nights at home. Who would 
enjoy a tour unbroken by good natured conflicts 
with guides, cabbies and porters ? If traveling 
were a mere dull routine, there would be no op- 
portunity to sharpen the wits. 

So the first duty of the American traveler is to 
follow the sensible advice of the menticulturists, 
" Don't worry." It is wonderful how much need- 
less fretting and how many ridiculous apprehen- 
sions and misapprehensions can be put into a 
journey if the traveler is inclined to conjure up 
trouble ahead and take the dismal view of every 
situation. The disasters of the fussy traveler are 
always in the future tense. They seldom mate- 
rialize. Today he is happily settled in a good 
hotel, the weather is perfect and the sightseeing 
is profitable ; but no doubt the hotel will over- 
charge him and possibly he may miss the train 
tomorrow and it seems probable that he will be 
insulted and badgered by the customs officers at 
the next frontier, to say nothing of the dangers 
of losing his tickets, having his baggage stolen 
and encountering bad weather. Happy the trav- 
eler who can carry with him the spirit of philosophy, 
the disposition to "take things as they come" 
and the sense of humor with which to regulate 
his impatient wrath. 

The traveler ou^ht to understand in advance 
that there has grown up in Europe an inter- 
national system of transportation and that in all 

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American Vacations in Europe 

touring- countries there are excellent facilities for 
moving travelers from one place to another in 
comfort, providing them with something to eat 
and giving them a good room every night. If 
the traveler will put his faith in this system and 
accept its benefits and not try to revise it or regu- 
late it, he will find that he can travel in Europe 
with a minimum of friction. If he allows himself 
to be irritated into a chronic condition of fault 
finding and tries to superintend all the details that 
should be left to experienced servants and 
employes, he will simply keep himself in a temper, 
and after his trip is ended he will be able to look 
back over the route and know that all his nervous 
precautions were unnecessary. Every excitable 
traveler should remember that thousands of his 
bewildered countrymen wander throughout Europe 
every summer, and we never hear of one being 
lost, strayed or stolen. The grand tour is a 
beaten path protected by walls, marked by sign- 
posts in all languages, with an eating station 
every twenty paces and a guide always at your 
elbow. 

As for the English language (which all of us 
understand even if we do not speak it to the 
satisfaction of our British cousins), the traveler's 
task in these days is to get away from it. Half 
the world is studying English and practicing on 
tourists. In 1898 I made a business trip across 
southern Europe to Constantinople and returned 

(^7) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 



by way of the Mediterranean and I found only one 
hotel in which English was not spoken. It was 
in Belgrade. As for the show places of the con- 
tinent, and the traveler naturally puts these into 
his first itinerary, the American moves from one 
to another, pleasantly saluted in his own tongue at 
every town. There is no denying that the 
pleasure of travel is greatly enhanced by a work- 
ing knowledge of French or German or, better 
still, both ; but no one need repine on crossing a 
frontier because he does not speak " the language 
of the country." Soon he will master the sign- 
language, which is the same everywhere, and he 
will find so much English in unexpected places 
that after a few days the phrase-book, which was 
to have been his ready resort, will be put away 
and forgotten. 

In these days it is no more a feat to go around 
the world than it is to travel from Chicago to 
Denver. It takes longer, that is all. The rail- 
way and steamship lines have learned to move 
and transfer passengers without demanding any 
cooperative ingenuity on their part. The methods 
are the outgrowth of experience and cannot be 
altered to suit the whim or caprice of every dys- 
peptic who happens to use the line. So don't 
waste your time in hunting for defects in the for- 
eign way of handling travelers. You will find 
them, but after you have found them and abused 
them what good has been accomplished ? And 

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American Vacations in Europe 

remember that there are other points of view. 
Above all, remember that what is a new and 
almost terrifying experience to you is an old, old 
story to these common carriers. If you will only 
trust them and give your whole attention to 
the mere fun of travel, they will put you into 
the right carriage and take you to the town 
marked on your ticket and deliver you safe with 
all your effects. So, don't worry. I really be- 
lieve that the pleasure of a vacation trip in Europe 
could be increased fourfold if the traveler were 
to force himself to pass all the petty and harass- 
ing details over to servants who have to be tipped 
and who might as well be given an honest oppor- 
tunity to earn their tips. When you go to Europe 
don't put in all your time studying complicated 
time-tables and investigating hotels. The result 
will be headache and confusion of mind. It is 
possible to make a journey in Europe one long, 
nerve-racking task. You may have to welcome 
the ocean voyage as an opportunity to rest. 

Railway travel in Europe may not be as lux- 
urious as it is with us, but there are more elab- 
orate precautions for avoiding accidents and 
preventing mistakes. When one is traveling in 
a strange country the feeling of security is more 
to be desired than the " de luxe" comforts of our 
gaudy fliers. At a railway station in almost any 
European country it is practically impossible to 
select the wrong train or get into the wrong com- 

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The Booklovers Reading Club 

partment. You must show your ticket before 
you are permitted to go on the station platform. 
The omnipresent porter leads you to your train 
and finds a place for you and puts your baggage 
in the racks. The chances are that before the 
train starts, a guard will come to the compart- 
ment and look at your ticket in order to make 
assurance doubly sure. To cap all these various 
precautions, the destination of each car is indi- 
cated by bold signboards. Therefore the new and 
doubting traveler in Europe may be assured that 
the actual difficulties of railway travel are mostly 
imaginary. Discomforts there are, if one has to 
ride all day or all night in the little box-like com- 
partments ; but unless the traveler is racing for a 
record he will do well to break his journey so 
as to avoid night rides. Sleeping cars are few 
and the tariff is high, and besides when you are 
in a bunk you miss the panoramic view of the 
country. 

The experienced travelers poke more or less 
fun at the " personally conducted tours." There 
are disadvantages and also certain compensating 
advantages in being taken under the wing of an 
agent. If one does not choose to move about in 
a drove and be a part of an imposing parade, 
perhaps he would do better to " flock by himself." 
But if his time is limited and he would avoid the 
details of bargaining and "booking," he can 
travel with a party and thereby escape the im- 

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American Vacations in Europe 

aginary difficulties and dangers to which some 
reference has been made. 

At the risk of repeating what is contained 
in the red guidebook, it may be necessary to add 
something in regard to tickets, luggage, tips and 
the hotel system. The most convenient tickets 
for European travelers are those issued by the 
well-known tourist agencies. It is just as well to 
buy your tickets for the continent before you 
leave London. Each ticket is printed in English 
on one side and indicates the towns at which you 
will be permitted to break your journey. The 
tourist agent binds these tickets into a convenient 
little book. If you change your plans and do not 
carry out the full itinerary at first outlined, the 
uncanceled tickets are returnable. If your route 
is not definitely planned, you may buy your tickets 
one or two at a time as you move about on the 
continent, for there is a Cook or Gaze office in 
every important town. The advantage in buying 
of an English agent is that you avoid the waits 
and the crowds at the stations. Furthermore the 
English-speaking young man at the agency can 
give you valuable hints as to the selection of 
routes and good trains. Occasionally the traveler 
can get cheaper rates than those regularly offered 
by Cook and Gaze, but even the " circular tick- 
ets" of Italy and the thirty-day excursion tickets 
of Switzerland, crood on all roads and on all 

O 

trains, may be obtained through the English 

(7i) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

agencies. An economical traveler may take a 
third-class ticket in England. On the continent 
second-class is Lfood enough for those who do 
not insist on avoiding fellow travelers. In the 
southern countries, Italy and Spain, the traveler 
should go first-class if he feels that he can af- 
ford it. 

If you are going on a hurried summer trip 
through several countries do not take any trunk 
with you. A Saratoga trunk is a veritable white 
elephant to the European traveler. Of course, 
if you expect to remain several weeks in each 
important town and permit your tour to extend 
itself leisurely over many months, then you will 
need your "boxes." But if you are to fly from 
one place to another and "do" a half dozen 
countries in a half dozen weeks, take the advice 
of innumerable sufferers and "travel light." In 
these days of creature comforts and "dressing 
for dinner," many people, and the members of 
the fair sex in particular, have a horror of " living 
in a hand-bag." But the hand-bags of Europe 
are huge and elastic affairs. They are put into 
the railway compartments and taken out again by 
obliging porters, and broad racks are especially 
provided for them. The traveler with only hand 
luggage saves time and money and escapes many 
vexations. One must " register " his trunk and 
pay an extremely high "excess" charge. The 
usual allowance is only fifty-four pounds. At 

(72) 



American Vacations in Europe 

frontier and terminal stations, where there are 
customs examinations, the traveler actually must 
wait hours at times for his heavy luggage to be 
delivered and examined. Therefore, if you ex- 
pect to cover a great deal of ground within a short 
period, leave your trunks in London or Paris and 
carry as few impediments as possible, never for- 
getting the time-honored injunction in regard to 
medium weight garments. 

The tip system of Europe is the source of many 
small annoyances to the American traveler. If 
he permits himself to brood over the injustice of 
the demands made upon him and makes a Quixotic 
resolve to readjust the whole system on a basis of 
equity, then he is in for an irrepressible conflict 
with all the polite beggars who depend on foreign 
travel. The American does not fancy the idea of 
giving a tip to some one who has performed no 
real service for him, neither does he understand 
why an American should be expected to pay twice 
as much in gratuities as a Frenchman or a Ger- 
man. For instance, the porter, or "usher," who 
carries the hand lug-orag-e from the bus or cab to 
the railway carriage receives from one of his own 
countrymen for this helpful performance the 
equivalent of two cents in our money. The 
American, in a spirit of easy generosity, gives the 
man the equivalent of five cents, whereupon the 
disappointed and almost heartbroken porter pleads 
for an equivalent of ten cents, intimating, by 

(73) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

means of the sign language, that he has perma- 
nently injured his spine in lifting the heavy bags, 
also that he is dying of hunger, also that ten cents 
is the regular charge. Now if you yield to his 
wheedling entreaties and he goes away chuckling, 
you have the humiliating knowledge that you are 
a fool. On the other hand, if you repulse him 
unkindly you find yourself in a heat and you are 
in no mood for a cheerful journey. Occasionally 
an American, wise in his own conceit, decides that 
he will give the same tip that is given by the 
native of the country. He will demonstrate to 
the underling that he is familiar with the schedule 
of tips and is not to be imposed upon. This 
solution is beautiful in theory but has a vital weak- 
ness from the fact that the porter has come to 
know Americans. I have tried it. Once I eave 
an Italian facchino two copper coins for bring- 
ing my luggage to the car and putting it in the 
rack. He looked at the pitiful sum in amazement 
and began to weep. Then he started in to plead. 
I could not solve his delivery but I knew it was 
the story of the down-trodden toiler, so I gave 
him a silver piece in order to assuage his grief 
and he was all sunshine in a moment. He went 
away very blithely and I have no doubt that he 
boasted for many days of how he "worked the 
Americano." It is almost impossible to give 
sensible advice on the subject of tipping. After 
all, it is a question of courage. We know in 

(74) 



American Vacations in Europe 

what manner we ought to regulate our tipping, but 
when we are confronted by the smiling and coax- 
ing waiters, boys, chambermaids, "boots" and 
portier, we weaken on our stern resolutions and 
exceed the appropriation. When three of us were 
traveling together we took turn about in acting 
as cashier. At each hotel we would decide to tip 
only those servants to whom we were actually 
under obligation. And when it came to a settle- 
ment, the cashier always admitted that he had 
tipped too many employes, but they came at him 
and stood in line and what was he to do ? Clever 
mendicants ! They have learned the weakness 
of the American. He does not wish to appear 
'stingy." So as to tipping — for you must tip — 
distribute your small change so as to satisfy your 
conscience and avoid friction, but as you value 
your self-respect and peace of mind, never con- 
descend to quarrel over so trivial a matter. 

As to hotels, your guidebook and your suave 
manager will always name the hotel to be selected 
at your next destination. No doubt the omnibus 
will be waiting- at the station. Remember two 
things which also are time-honored instructions : 
inquire the rate in advance and do not order 
"extras," unless you are indifferent as to the 
amount of the bill. 

The American in Europe must learn to bargain. 
Do it good-naturedly and do it before the com- 
modity is delivered and then there will be less 

(7S) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

complaint as to extortion. The traveler is ex- 
pected to inquire the price of whatever he intends 
to purchase, whether it be a cab ride, the use of 
a room at a hotel or a work of art. If he fails 
to inquire the cost but orders offhand, there is a 
natural supposition that he is willing to pay any 
price the vender may name. It is dangerous to 
foster this impression. 



<==^+^sJ>J? (^ *—*- 



(76) 



Stimulative Questions 




hese q uestions are ?tot 
merely a kind of exami- 
nation paper after the 
completion of the book; 
their objeEl is rather to 
open up felds of thought and to stimu- 
late the reader to think for himself 
A single question will sometimes suggest 
lines of thinking that will make clear 
large areas of a subject which might 
otherwise have remained vague and un- 
satisfactory. If possible the reader 
should write out his answers to the ques- 
tions, since this is the most certain means 
of avoiding hasty and superficial thinking. 



(77) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 



Me??wranda : 



(78) 



STIMULATIVE QUESTIONS 



FROM PONKAPOG TO PESTH. 

1. What was the author's object in writing this 
book ? 

2. What are its literary merits ? 

3. What characteristics may be found in it that are 
in all of Aldrich's works ? 

4. What evidences of the author's brilliant wit ? 

5. What has most interest for him, picturesque 
humanity, natural scenery, or historic structures ? 

6. What particularly skilful touches in the way of 
description or characterization ? 

7. What traces of irony ? 

8. What particularly original and illuminating epi- 
thets and comparisons ? 

9. In what way is the book helpful ? 

10. How does it differ from the ordinary book of 
travels ? 



SAUNTERINGS. 

1. What was the author's object in writing the 
book ? 

2. To what extent is the chronology of the journey 
indicated ? 

3. What glimpses of Warner's personality ? 

4. Would the book be valuable as a traveler's hand- 
book ? 



(79) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 



Memoranda ; 



(80) 



American Vacations in Europe 

5. What appeals most to Warner — form, color, his- 
toric associations, present customs, picturesque peculiar- 
ities, human sympathies ? 

6. What appeals least ? 

7. Do you find any trace in the book of Warner, the 
philanthropist and reformer ? 

8. Do you find any monotony in style or matter ? 

9. In what ways does Saitntcrings differ from Al- 
drich's book ? 



OUR HUNDRED DAYS IN EUROPE. 

1. What was the primary object of the journey and 
of the book ? 

2. What stamps it as an old man's book ? 

3. Are there any signs of garrulity or undue remin- 
iscence ? 

4. Do you find any traces of egotism ? 

5. Is it wholly free from the romance and glamor 
that usually marks the young man's book ? 

6. What parts read like pages from the Autocrat 
series ? 

7. Why does so little of Paris appear ? 

8. What element is added by the daughter's diary ? 

9. Are there in it any traces of the guide-book 
manner ? 

10. Do the general reflections and observations at 
the close strike you as particularly valuable ? 

6e f8i) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 



Memoranda; 



(82) 



American Vacations in Europe 
gondola days. 

1. Summarize the author's idea of the book as re- 
vealed in the preface. 

2. Do you think the author's picture overdone ? 

3. In what way is the book poetic ? 

4. Is there an element of monotony after a time ? 

5. Why does the author delight in such characters 
as, for instance, Luigi ? 

6. Does his delight in humanity spring from the 
same source as Warner's ? As Holmes' ? 

7. What evidence that the author was an artist ? 

8. Do you think the book records the author's ex- 
perience of Venetian life, or only his fleeting moods ? 

9. Do you find any traces of sparkle of style, wit 
and epigram as in Holmes and Aldrich ? 

10. What is the chief value of the book ? 



(*3) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 



Memoranda ; 



(84) 



Topics for Special Papers 

AND FOR OPEN DISCUSSION 



i. Reading as a preparation for travel. 

2. Varieties of books of travel. 

3. The decline of the book of travel. 

4. The use of guidebooks. 

5. The Venice of Smith, Howells, Mark Twain and 
Ruskin. 

6. Holmes as a traveler. 

7. Charles Dudley Warner and his influence. 

8. Is European travel bringing to America danger- 
ous ideals and customs ? 

9. Points of similarity between Holmes and Aldrich. 

10. Requisites for a good narrative of travel. 

11. What is to be the future of American travel in 
Europe ? 

12. Why has Spain always been so peculiarly attrac- 
tive to American travelers and writers ? 

13. Does the American pell-mell habit of "doing 
Europe " in a few weeks tend to make us a superficial 
people ? 

14. The financial aspect of a summer in Europe. 

15. What class of books of travel is now alone ac- 
ceptable ? 

16. The sentimental era of American travel in Europe. 

17. The influence of Mark Twain on the literature of 
European travel. 

(85) 



Selected Criticism 



NOTEWORTHY OPINIONS 
OF DISTINGUISHED TRAV- 
ELERS AND CRITICS 



[87; 



Selected Criticism 



Ainsworth R. Spofford. 
"Among the books which combine entertain- 
ment with information the best narratives of trav- 
elers and voyagers hold an eminent place. In 
them the reader enlarges the bounds of his horizon 
and travels in companionship with his author all 
over the globe. While many, if not the most, of 
the books of modern travelers are filled with petty 
incidents and personal observations of no import- 
ance, there are some wonderfully good books of 
this attractive class." 

Washington Irving. 
"I have never yet grown familiar enough with 
the crumbling monuments of past ages to blunt 
the intense interest with which I at first beheld 
them. Accustomed always to scenes where his- 
tory was, in a manner, anticipation ; where every- 
thing in art was new and progressive and pointed 
to the future rather than to the past ; where, in 
short, the works of man gave no ideas but those 
of young existence and prospective improvement, 
there was something inexpressibly touching in the 
sight of enormous piles of architecture gray with 
antiquity and sinking to decay. I cannot describe 
the mute but deep felt enthusiasm with which I 

l«9) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

have contemplated a vast monastic ruin like Tin- 
tern Abbey, buried in the bosom of a quiet valley 
and shut up from the world as though it had ex- 
isted merely for itself; or a warrior pile like Con- 
way Castle standing in stern loneliness on its 
rocky height, a mere hollow yet threatening 
phantom of departed power. They spread a grand 
and melancholy, and to me an unusual, charm 
over the landscape ; I for the first time beheld 
signs of national old age and empire's decay and 
proofs of the transient and perishing glories of 
art amidst the ever springing and reviving fertility 
of nature. 

"I was continually coming upon some little 
document of poetry in the blossomed hawthorn, 
the daisy, the cowslip, the primrose, or some other 
simple object that has received a supernatural 
value from the Muse. The first time I heard the 
song of the nightingale I was intoxicated more 
by the delicious crowd of remembered associations 
than by the melody of its notes ; and I shall never 
forget the thrill of ecstacy with which I first saw 
the lark arise almost from beneath my feet and 
wing its musical flight up into the morning sky. 

"In this way I traversed England, a grown up 
child delighted by every object great and small 
and betraying a wondering ignorance and simple 
enjoyment that provoked many a stare and smile 
from my wiser and more experienced fellow 
travelers." 



(90) 



American Vacations in Europe 

Charles F. Richardson. 
"When Outre Mer appeared in 1834 and 1835 
European travel was still uncommon among Amer- 
icans. A few more ambitious graduates were able 
to put "Ph. D. Gott." after their names, and an 
occasional George Ticknor could boast the ac- 
quaintance of the leaders of contemporary English 
literature. But a trip to Britain or the Continent 
was so rare that it was frequent to follow it by a 
bit of book making generally of the rhapsodical or 
diaristic style. Nearly all of these early books ol 
travel have gone to the oblivion they richly de- 
served after performing their humble work of in- 
struction or amusement. Outre Mer was a vol- 
ume of a different class. It has lived and is still 
occasionally read ; it would doubtless have kept a 
place in literature even had it not boasted the 
name of an author afterwards famous in other and 
higher work." 

John Nichol. 
"The Americans have no good book about 
England. . . . Mrs. H. B. Stowe's good humor 
is as shallow as Mr. Trollope's acerbity. Of her 
Sunny Memories we remember nothing but an 
abortive attempt to describe the Atlantic, the 
hackneyed Melrose by moonlight, and the author's 
self-gratulations on the open doors of aristocratic 
philanthropists. . . . Similarly Mr. N. P. Willis, 
running across the sea, returned with jottings 

(9 1 ) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

from the conversation in the saloons of 'the charm- 
ing Countess of B .' His Pencillings by the 

Way has no more relation to an adequate account 
of the countries visited than the sketches in a 
schoolgirl's portfolio to an authorized geological 
chart. Washington Irving was a ' spirit of an- 
other sort.' Half a European by residence, he 
liked our country, and having opportunity to study 
it, made himself familiar with our manners ; but 
his purpose did not lead him to abstract inquiry 
or analysis, and he confined himself mainly to 
pleasant literary and local reminiscences. 

"The least satisfactory of the two foremost 
American prose writers of recent years are those 
connected with their English experiences. Every 
chapter of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Old Home ex- 
hibits his delicate grace and quiet subtle thought. 
He carried with him across the Atlantic a series 
of picturesque photographs of English cities old 
and new — of bright young Leamington and musty 
Warwick, of Litchfield Market-Place, of Norfolk 
Boston with its minster bell, of Blenheim Park 
and Alloway Kirk, of Greenwich Hospital with 
its Trafalgar memories — many a vivid glimpse of 
squalid poverty and superabounding wealth ; but 
his retiring nature sought out dim alleys and 
woodland ways or loitered within the shadow of 
gray cathedrals, and his book, as a whole, says 
little of England as a whole. . . . Seven 
years earlier Emerson's English Traits was pub- 

(92) 



American Vacations in Europe 

lished, and in spite of much that is true and tell- 
ing in its keen and polished epigrams, it showed 
how deceptive the impressions derived from a 
brief sojourn in our country are apt to be." 

JJL 

Charles F. Richardson. 
" Holmes deems nothing human foreign to him, 
therefore he works in many fields. . . . Upon 
American literature he has made his own mark 
and the mark is deep and characteristic and 
readily recognizable, whether it be in prose or 
verse, in humor, satire, story or essay. In what- 
ever Holmes writes these qualities are recogniz- 
able : good sense, though the reader may disagree 
with him ; good humor, though the writer be ter- 
ribly in earnest ; and an alert mind." 

Hamilton IV. Mabie. 
"In a country like our own, born full-grown in 
a sense, culture must find its material to a con- 
siderable extent in the experience and achieve- 
ments of older races, and from the beginning 
American literature has been the interpreter of 
the ripe past to the ripening present, and popular 
education has been largely aided by assimilation 
of the best things in the older civilization. Irving 
with sensitive and delicate skill sketched the 
background of European life and habit against 

(93) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

which the stir and vitality of the new metropolis 
of the new world were set. Longfellow recalled 
to the memory and imagination of the youngest 
of peoples the poetry and legends of older races; 
in neither case was there any loss of originality 
for Irving created for us two charming legends, 
and Longfellow gave us two traditions full of in- 
sight and tender portrayal of the earlier history 
of the continent. This faculty of assimilation 
Mr. Warner possessed. He was an eager 
traveler and a born observer, and he came at a 
time when Americans were oroing- out of them- 
selves to see the world and to understand their 
own place in it. Mr. Warner's roots were deep 
in the soil of the new world and he carried a very 
independent mind abroad ; but he had a tolerant 
temper, the tastes and charity of a man of the 
world and the receptivity of nature which loves 
excellence and is quick to recognize it wherever 
it discloses its presence. 

"He had the air of a man who had been accus- 
tomed to the best society among books and men. 
His sanity and poise reflected a wide contact with 
the world ; he was tolerant of everything except 
vulgarity, sham and cheapness. His ease of 
manner suggested liberal opportunities and an 
ample background of social and intellectual life. 
His humor was the free play of a nature which 
felt itself at home in the world and qualified to 
compare varying standards of action, diverse 

(94) 



American Vacations in Europe 

ideals of manners and types of character. The 
specific qualities of his work in all forms were 
sanity, ease, and humor." 

JUL 

William Dean Hoxvells. 
"It has sometimes seemed to me as if fortune 
had given to me a stage-box at another and 
grander spectacle, and I had been suffered to see 
this Venice, which is to other cities like the pleasant 
improbability of the theatre to every-day, com- 
monplace life, to much the same effect as that 
melodrama in Padua. I could not, indeed, dwell 
three years in the place without learning to know 
it differently from those writers who have described 
it in romances, poems, and hurried books of travel, 
nor help seeing from my point of observation the 
sham and cheapness with which Venice is usually 
brought out, if I may so speak, in literature. At 
the same time it has never lost for me its claim 
upon constant surprise and regard, nor the fasci- 
nation of its excellent beauty, its peerless pic- 
turesqueness, its sole and wondrous grandeur." 

" So if the reader care to follow me to my stage- 
box, I imagine he will hardly see the curtain rise 
upon just the Venice of his dreams — the Venice 
of Byron, of Rogers, and Cooper ; or upon the 
Venice of his prejudices — the merciless Venice of 
Darii and of the historians who follow him. But I 



(95) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

still hope that he will be pleased with the Venice he 
sees ; and will think with me that the place loses 
little in the illusion removed ; and — to take leave 
of our theatrical metaphor — I promise to fatigue 
him with no affairs of my own, except as allusion 
to them may go to illustrate life in Venice ; and 
positively he shall suffer no annoyance from the 
fleas and bugs which in Latin countries so often 
get from travelers' beds into their books." 

Mark Twain. 
" One lingers about the cathedral a good deal 
in Venice. There is a strong fascination about it, 
partly because it is so old and partly because it is 
so ugly. Too many of the world's famous build- 
ings fail of one chief virtue — harmony ; they are 
made up of a methodless mixture of the ugly and 
the beautiful. This is bad, it is confusing, it is 
unrestful. One has a sense of uneasiness, of dis- 
tress without knowing why. But one is calm 
before St. Mark's, one is calm within it, one would 
be calm on top of it, calm in the cellar ; for its 
details are masterfully ugly. No misplaced and 
impertinent beauties are intruded anywhere, and 
the consequent result is a grand, harmonious 
whole of soothing, entrancing, tranquilizing, soul- 
satisfying ugliness. One's admiration of a perfect 
thing always grows, never declines ; and this is 
the surest evidence to him that it is perfect. St. 

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American Vacations in Europe 



Mark's is perfect. To me it soon grew to be so 
nobly, so augustly ugly that it was difficult to stay 
away from it even for a little while." 

Lee Meriwether. 

"The first-class tourist may see the beauties of 
a country's landscapes and scenery from the 
window of a palace car, but his vision goes no 
further — does not penetrate below the surface. 
To know a country one must fraternize with its 
people, must live with them, sympathize with 
them, win their confidence. High life in Europe 
has been paid sufficient attention by travelers and 
writers. I was desirous of seeing something of 
low life. I donned the blouse and hob-nailed 
shoes of a workman and spent a year in a Tramp- 
Trip from Gibraltar to the Bosporus. . . . 

"The first day or two — feet blistered, muscles 
swollen, limbs stiff and tired — the novice is apt to 
become disheartened. My second day out from 
Naples was rainy ; the twenty-five-mile walk of 
the preceding day had made great blisters on my 
feet. When I limped into a village inn about 
dark, weary and soaked, I would have taken to 
the railroad, had there been one, and ended my 
pedestrian trip then and there. Fortunately the 
nearest railroad station was fifteen miles distant. 
In two or three days the blisters disappeared, the 
soreness of the muscles abated and I felt thor- 
oughly happy. 

7E (97) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

" Only he who has tried it can appreciate the 
independence of a walking tour. You make your 
own time schedule — come when you please and go 
when you please. That old castle on the hill to 
the right looks interesting. From the train, if 
seen at all, it is only a glimpse ; but the pedes- 
trian sallies gaily forth, ascends the hill at leisure, 
rummages among the ruins, clambers over the 
walls, and sees a hundred objects of which the 
traveler who is hurried from point to point never 
even dreams." 

E. L. Godkin. 

"There is probably no American who has risen 
above very narrow circumstances who does not 
go to Europe at least once in his life. There is 
hardly a village in the country in which the man 
who has succeeded in trade or commerce does 
not announce his success to his neighbors by a 
trip to Europe for himself and his family. There 
is hardly a professor or teacher or clergyman or 
artist or author who does not save out of a salary 
however small in order to make the voyage. 

"Americans who go to Europe with some 
knowledge of history, of the fine arts, and of 
literature all recognize the fact that they could 
not have completed their education without going. 
To such people travel in Europe is one of the 
purest and most elevating of pleasures, for Europe 
contains the experience of mankind in nearly 

(98) 



American Vacations in Europe 

every field of human endeavor. They often, it is 
true, come back discontented with America, but 
out of this discontent have grown some of our 
most valuable improvements — libraries, museums, 
art galleries, colleges. What they have seen in 
Europe has opened their eyes to the possibilities 
and short-comings of their own country." 

Frank R. Stockton. 
" Both Americans and English, like all patriotic 
people, believe their respective countries to be 
the best in the world, and many of them consider 
it necessary, when they are traveling, to show 
this. Persons like these, however, be they 
American or English, do not belong to the better 
class of travelers. The more we travel and the 
more we see of other nations, the better we be- 
come acquainted with their merits and virtues. 
Their oddities and their faults naturally are the 
first thing's which strike our attention ; but if we 
have seen nothing but these, it is a proof either 
that we have not traveled enough or that we are 
not qualified to travel with advantage. The more 
the right kind of an American journeys the more 
he is likely to be satisfied that he is an American ; 
but the better he becomes acquainted with other 
nations, and learns not only to avoid their faults 
but to imitate their virtues, the greater advantage 
he is to his own country." 

L.oFC. (99) 



The Booklovers Reading Club 

Franklin Matthews. 
"There have been many estimates published of 
the amount of money Americans spend on their 
trips abroad. Taking the second class travelers 
into consideration with the first cabin travelers I 
am of the opinion that six hundred dollars is about 
the average expenditure on the trip ... A 
large sum is expended every year in Europe in the 
purchase of clothing. I think, however, that this 
does not average more than one hundred dollars 
for each passenger. Considerable money is 
spent in the purchase of souvenirs, but this prob- 
ably does not exceed twenty dollars on the aver- 
age for each traveler. Those who have been in 
Europe before spend almost nothing for souvenirs 
on the following trips. Still when one thinks of 
the army that goes to Europe every year an ex- 
penditure of six hundred dollars for each person 
amounts to an enormous sum. For the 100,000 
who crossed in 1895 this would amount to $60,- 
000,000. That sum in my estimation represents 
about what Americans pay for the satisfaction of 
crossing the ocean and spending more or less 
time in sight-seeing in Europe." 



(IOC) 



SUPPLEMENTARY BOOKS 



Outre Mer. By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1835. 

A sentimental journey by a young poet. Full of 
generous appreciation and romantic touches. " I 
have traversed France from Normandy to Navarre, 
smoked my pipe in a Flemish inn, floated through 
Holland in a Trekschuit, trimmed my midnight lamp 
in a German university, wandered and mused amid 
the classic scenes of Italy, and listened to the gay 
guitar and merry castanet on the borders of the 
blue Guadalquivir." 

Views Afoot. By Bayard Taylor. 1855. 

The record of a two years' saunter through Europe by 
a young poet whose entire expenses for the period 
were $472 all earned on the road. The tour in- 
cluded Ireland, Scotland, England, Holland, Ger- 
many, Bohemia, Switzerland, Italy and France. 

English Traits. By Ralph Waldo Emerson. 1856. 

A book embodying Emerson's observations during 
his several visits to England, " the notebook of a 
philosophic traveler." It records visits to Coleridge, 
Carlyle and Wordsworth, but the greater part is 
abstract : race, ability, character, wealth, etc. A 
searching analysis and very valuable. 

Our Old Home. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. 1863. 

Selections from Hawthorne's Notebooks while he 
was consul at Liverpool. Full of charming pictures. 
Treats among other things of " My Consular Ex- 

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The Booklovers Reading Club 

periences," " Warwick," " Old Boston," " Haunts of 
Burns," " English Poverty," etc. He has himself 
described it as "a few of the external aspects of 
English scenery and life, especially those that are 
touched with the antique charm to which our coun- 
trymen are more susceptible than are the people 
among whom it is a natural growth." 

Venetian Life. By William Dean Howells. 1867. 

Venice from the standpoint of one who made it his 
home for three years. It gives the everyday life of 
the city apart from the romantic glamor, which, how- 
ever, it does not ignore. " Such value as my book 
may have is in fidelity to what I actually saw and 
knew of Venice." 

Italian Journeys. By William Dean Howells. 1867. 

A kind of extension of Venetian Life. It records 
the author's excursions to Padua, Ferara, Genoa, 
Pompeii, Naples, Rome, etc. He knows Italy thor- 
oughly and writes in a bright, witty way about it. 

English Notebooks. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
1870. 

Full of fragmentary descriptions and records. Haw- 
thorne roamed much over England and he observed 
keenly. He usually saw the fantastic and pictur- 
esque, especially in humanity. 

French and Italian Notebooks. By Nathaniel 

Hawthorne. 1871. 

Does for France and Italy what Our Old Home and 
the English Notebooks do for England. Full of 
graphic description. 

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American Vacations in Europe 

Castilian Days. By John Hay. 187 1. 

A careful study of Spanish life and scenes written 
while the author was secretary of legation at Madrid. 
It does for Spain what Venetian Life does for Venice 
A vivid picture, " the work at once of the shrewd 
social observer and the imaginative poet." 

Bits of Travel. By Helen Hunt Jackson. 1872. 

A series of letters written during a tour of the Con- 
tinent. Bright and vivacious. " A volume of keen 
and amusing sketches of German and French expe- 
rience." — A. R. Spojford. 

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. 

By Robert Louis Stevenson. 1879. 
The author takes a journey for his health through 
the mountains of southern France. The book is one 
of Stevenson's best, full of sparkling humor, poetry, 
lively description, and characterization. 

A Tramp Abroad. By Mark Twain. 1880. 

Though generally regarded, as most of Mark Twain's 
works are, as pure fun, this book is genuinely helpful. 
It is an excellent preparation for travel on the con- 
tinent. The chapter on the German language is a 
classic. 

The Land of the Midnight Sun. By Paul 

Du Chaillu. 1881. 

Summer and winter journeys through Sweden, 

Norway, Lapland and northern Finland. Well 

illustrated. 



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The Booklovers Reading Club 

Seven Spanish Cities. By Edward Everett Hale. 

1883. 

Madrid, Cordova, Toledo, etc. A charming prepara- 
tion for a visit to Spain. 

A Roundabout Journey. By Charles Dudley 
Warner. 1883. 

A book much like Saunterings, dealing almost wholly 
with the western shores of the Mediterranean, 
France, Sicily, Malta, Morocco, Spain. Nearly half 
the book describes journeys in Spain. 

The American Four-in-Hand. By Andrew 

Carnegie. 1883. 

Describes a coaching trip from Brighton to In- 
verness. People and places by the way entertain- 
ingly treated. 

A Little Tour of France. By Henry James, Jr. 
1884. 

Picturesque, in the author's well-known sparkling 
style. 

A Tramp Trip : How to See Europe on 

Fifty Cents a Day. By Lee Meriwether. 1886. 

Gives the side of European life not generally seen 
by those who keep in the beaten tracks. The au- 
thor's object was to study labor conditions, and the 
book accordingly gives graphic pictures of the pov- 
erty and hard toil of the lower classes. 

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American Vacations in Europe 
Cathedral Days : A Tour through Southern 

England. By Anna B. Dodd. 1887. 

A six weeks' driving tour through the south of Eng- 
land. Full of chat, dialogue, fun and holiday spirit. 
Fully illustrated. 

Personally Conducted. By Frank R. Stockton. 

1889. 

Written as a juvenile but a book of value to all who 
approach Europe for the first time. Entertaining 
and instructive. 

Scrambles among the Alps. By E. Whymper. 
1871. 

Holiday ascents, chiefly of the Matterhorn. 

Books for Travelers. 

In the Book Buyer, volume 14, page 484. The best 
recent bibliography of the books of travel useful to 
those contemplating a trip abroad. 




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Twenty-Five Reading Courses 



No. i— PROBLEMS IN MODERN DEMOCRACY 

Among the contributors to the handbook accompanying this 
course are ex-President Cleveland; Woodrow Wilson, Professor 
of Politics, Princeton University ; Henry J. Ford, author of Rise 
and Growth of American Politics; and Henry D. Lloyd, author 
of Newest England. The books for the course are selected 
by Mr. Cleveland. 

No. 2— MODERN MASTERS OF MUSIC 

Among the contributors to the handbook accompanying this 
course are Reginald de Koven, Dr. VV. S. B. Mathews, editor of 
Music ; James G. Huneker, editor of Musical Courier ; Henry 
E. Krehbiel, musical critic New York Tribune; dnd Gustave 
Kobbe", author of Wagner's Life and Works. The most attrac- 
tive reading course ever offered to lovers of music. 

No. 3— RAMBLINGS AMONG ART CENTRES 

Among the contributors to the handbook accompanying this 
course are F. Hopkinson Smith, Dr. John C. Van Dyke, Dr. 
John La Farge, President of the Society of American Artists ; 
Kenvon Cox and Dr. Russell Sturgis. The handbook is 
attractively illustrated. Mr. Smith and Dr. Van Dyke are 
responsible for selecting the books to be read. 

No. 4— AMERICAN VACATIONS IN EUROPE 

This course is the next best thing to going abroad oneself. 
Among the contributors to the handbook are Frank R. Stockton, 
Jeannette L. Gilder, editor of The Critic; Mrs. Schuyler Crown- 
lnshield and George Ade. The handbook has a fine portrait 
frontispiece. 

No. 5— A STUDY OF SIX NEW ENGLAND CLASSICS 

The books for this course are selected by Dr. Edward 
Everett Hale. Among the contributors to the handbook are 
Dr. Hale, Julian Hawthorne, Mrs. James T. Fields and Dr. 
Edward Waldo Emerson. Dr. Emerson is a son of Ralph Waldo 
Emerson. This is one of the most attractive courses in the 
entire series. 

No. 6- SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLISH KINGS 

The plays are selected for this course by H. Beerbohm 
Tree, the well-known English actor, and the books to be read 
in connection with the plays are selected by Sir Henry 

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The Booklovers Reading Club 



Irving. Among the other contributors to the handbook are Prof. 
Edward Dowden, acknowledged the greatest Shakespearean 
scholar of Great Britain, Dr. Hiram Corson, of Cornell Univer- 
sity; Dr. William J. Rolfe and Dr. Hamilton W. Mabie. The 
handbook is very attractively illustrated. 

No. 7— CHARLES DICKENS: HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Among the contributors to the delightful handbook accompany- 
ing this course are George W. Cable, the well-known novelist; 
Irving Bacheller, author of Eben Holden; Andrew Lang, the 
distinguished English writer ; Amelia E. Barr, the novelist ; and 
James L. Hughes, author of Dickens as an Educator. The 
books to be read are selected by Mr. Cable and Mr. 
Bacheller. The handbook is beautifully illustrated. 

No. 8— CHILD STUDY FOR MOTHERS AND TEACHERS 

Among the contributors to the handbook accompanying this 
course are Margaret E. Sangster, Nora Archibald Smith, Anne 
Emilie Poulson, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Lucy Wheelock 
and Kate Gannett Wells. Mrs. Sangster selects the books to be 
read. 

No. 9— INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS OF THE DAY 

The following distinguished writers on economic problems 
contribute to the handbook accompanying this course : Presi- 
dent Jacob Gould Schurman, of Cornell University ; Jeremiah 
Whipple Jenks, Professor of Political Science, Cornell University ; 
Richard Theodore Ely, Director of the School of Economics, 
Political Science and History, University of Wisconsin ; Sidney 
Webb, Lecturer London School of Economics and Political 
Science, Member London County Council ; and Carroll Davidson 
Wright, United States Commissioner of Labor. 

No. io— FLORENCE IN ART AND LITERATURE 

Among the contributors to the handbook accompanying this 
course are William Dean Howells, Dr. Russell Sturgis, Frank 
Preston Stearns, author of Midsummer of Italian Art, Life of 
Tintoretto, etc.; Dr. William Henry Goodyear, Curator Fine Arts 
Museum of Brooklyn Institute; and Lewis Frederick Pilcher, 
Professor of Art, Vassar College. The handbook has some 
attractive illustrations. 

No. ii— STUDIES OF EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS 

The books have been selected specially for this course by the 
Rt. Hon. James Bryce, of the English House of Commons, and 
the Hon. Andrew D. White, United States Ambassador to Ger- 



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The Booklovers Reading Club 



many. Among the other contributors to the handbook are Jesse 
Macy, Professor of Constitutional History and Political Science, 
Iowa College; and John William Burgess, Professor of Political 
Science and Constitutional Law, and Dean of the Faculty of 
Political Science, Columbia University. 

No. 12— FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE RENAISSANCE 

Among the contributors to the handbook accompanying this 
course are Col. Thomas Went worth Higginson, Margaret Deland 
and Charlotte Brewster Jordan. The handbook has several 
very interesting illustrations. 

No. 13— THE MODERN CITY AND ITS PROBLEMS 

Among the contributors to the handbook accompanying this 
course are Dr. Frederic W. Speirs ; Dr. Albert Shaw, editor 
of The Review of Reviews ; Bird S. Coler, Comptroller of the 
City of New York, author of Municipal Government ; and Charles 
J. Bonaparte, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the 
National Municipal League. The books are selected by Dr. 
Speirs. 

No. 14— STUDIES IN APPLIED ELECTRICITY 

This is without exception the most attractive and the most 
helpful reading course ever offered to students of electricity. 
Thomas A. Edison selects the books specially for these studies. 
Among the other contributors to the handbook are Dr. Edwin 
J. Houston, Dr. Elihu Thomson, Carl Hering, Ex-President of 
the American Institute of Electrical Engineers ; and Arthur V. 
Abbott, Chief Engineer of the Chicago Telephone Company. 

No. 15— FIVE WEEKS* STUDY OF ASTRONOMY 

Among the contributors to the handbook accompanying this 
course are Charles A. Young, Professor of Astronomy, Prince- 
ton University ; Sir Robert S. Ball, Professor of Astronomy, 
Cambridge University, and Director of Cambridge Observa- 
tory, England ; Camille Flammarion, founder of the As- 
tronomical Society of France, and author of Marvels of tfh? 
Heavens, Astronomy, etc.; George C. Comstock, Director of 
Washburn Observatory, University of Wisconsin ; and Harold 
Jacoby, Professor of Astronomy, Columbia University. The 
study programme includes contributions from the most famous 
astronomers of England and France. 

No. 16— RECENT ENGLISH DRAMATISTS 

Lovers of the best modern dramas will find much pleasure in 
these studies. Among the contributors to the handbook are 
Brander Matthews, Professor of Literature, Columbia University; 

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The Booklovers Reading Club 



Dr. William Winter, Dramatic Critic for the New York Tribune ; 
Dr. Harry Thurston Peck, Editor of The Bookman; Louise 
Chandler Moulton ; and Norman Hapgood, the well-known 
writer of dramatic criticism. The handbook has some interest- 
ing illustrations. 

No. 17— STUDIES IN CURRENT RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 

The books are chosen for the course by Dr. Lyman Abbott 
and Dr. Washington Gladden. Among the contributors to 
the handbook are Dr. Samuel D. McConnell, Rector of Holy 
Trinity Church, Brooklyn ; President William DeWitt Hyde, of 
Bowdoin College ; Dr. Amory H. Bradford, Editor of The 
Outlook ; Dr. Henry Collin Mmton, of San Francisco Theological 
Seminary, late Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly ; 
Dr. H. W. Thomas, Pastor of the People's Church, Chicago; 
and Dr. Theodore T. Munger, Pastor of the United Congrega- 
tional Church, New Haven. For clergymen and laymen who 
wish to stimulate the growth of a theology which is in harmony 
with the best thought of the time we recommend this handbook 
and this reading course. 

No. 18— THE GREATER VICTORIAN POETS 

The books are selected for this course by Thomas Bailey 
Aldrich. Among the other contributors to the handbook are 
Thomas R. Lounsbury, Professor of English, Yale University; 
Dr. T. M. Parrott, of Princeton University ; and Marie Ada Moli- 
neux, author of The Phrase Book of Browning. 

No. 19— OUT-OF-DOOR AMERICANS 

Among the contributors to the handbook accompanying this 
course are John Burroughs, Ernest Seton-Thompson, President 
David Starr Jordan, of the Leland Stanford Junior University ; 
Ernest Ingersoll and Hamlin Garland. Lovers of nature will 
find delight in the outlines and recommendations of this course. 

No. 20— THE WORLD'S GREAT WOMAN NOVELISTS 

Mrs. Humphry Ward, the well-known English novelist, is the 
first contributor to the handbook accompanying this course. 
The other contributors are Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, Mary 
E. Wilkins, Agnes Repplier, Katherine Lee Bates, Professor of 
English, Wellesley College; and Oscar Fay Adams. The hand- 
book contains some interesting illustrations. 

No. 21— AMERICAN FOUNDATION HISTORY 

Hon. Henry- Cabot Lodge selects the books for this course. 
Among the other contriixitors are Albert Bushnell Hart, Pro- 
fessor of American History, Harvard University ; John Bach 

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W 98 



The Booklovers Reading Club 



McMaster, Professor of American History, University of Penn- 
sylvania ; Reuben Gold Thwaites, Secretary of the State Histori- 
cal Society of Wisconsin, author of The Colonies ; Paul Leicester 
Ford, author of Janice Meredith; and Andrew Cunningham 
McLaughlin, Professor of American History, University of 
Michigan. 

No. 22— STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERARY LIFE 

Professor Barrett Wendell and Professor Lewis E. Gates, of 
Harvard, and Dr. Horace E. Scudder, late editor of The Atlantic 
Monthly, contribute to the handbook accompanying this course. 
For a brief stimulative and instructive course in American litera- 
ture nothing better could possibly be offered. 

No. 23— STUDIES IN RECENT FRENCH FICTION 

Alc6e Fortier, Professor of Romance Languages, Tulane 
University of Louisiana, has chosen the books for this reading 
course. Among the contributors to the handbook are the three 
distinguished French writers, Edouard Rod, Ferdinand Bru- 
netiere and Paul Bourget, and the notable American critic, 
Dr. Benjamin W. Wells, author of Modern Trench Literature and 
A Century of French Literature. 

No. 24— THE ENGLISH BIBLE : HOW WE GOT IT 

The contributors to this course include President William R. 
Harper, of the University of Chicago ; John Franklin Genung, 
Professor of Rhetoric, Amherst College ; William Newton Clarke, 
Professor of Christian Theology, Colgate University; and Richard 
G. Moulton, Professor of English Literature, University of 
Chicago. The handbook is a very interesting and instructive 
volume in itself. 

No. 25— THE MECHANISM OF 

PRESENT DAY COMMERCE 

In Preparation. The books are selected by the Hon. Lyman 
J. Gage, Secretary of the Treasury. 



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